Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Administration and Supervision

Major Professor

John T. Lovell

Committee Members

Howard F. C., Malcolm M. J

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gather empirical data relating to "job attitudes" of faculty in selected institutions of higher education in Tennessee. The problem that was addressed was the need for data that would give administrators insight into the nature of faculty job attitudes; data that would give administrators more reliable insights in order to help them in dealing more effectively with such issues as faculty turnover, faculty development, collective bargaining, and general faculty satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their jobs. Three current general areas were identified through a review of the literature which have not been investigated to a great extent in higher education. These areas included: "Intent to Remain," a strong predictor of turnover (Mobley, 1977); "Organizational Commitment," a reliable measure of attachment to an organization, and "Job Satisfaction," a universal construct measuring current feelings about a job. In measuring job satisfaction an additional purpose of the study was to examine Herzberg's dual-factor theory and further test its applicability in an educational setting.

The questionnaire designed to gather data to address this problem was comprised of three separate sections. Section one of the questionnaire requested specific information relating to the demographic characteristics of the population sampled. Demographic information requested included: age, gender, level of education, type of institution, faculty rank, tenure status, marital status, and length of service. This section also contained a question designed to measure "Intent to Remain" (Mobley, 1977), and "Expressed Job Satisfaction." Section two of the questionnaire consisted of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, developed by Monday, Porter, and Steers (1979), while section three consisted of the Job Factor Questionnaire developed by Lahari and Srivasta (1967) and Darrow (1971).

The questionnaire was mailed to a stratified sample consisting of faculty in public universities, private colleges and universities, and public community colleges. A total of 213 questionnaires were returned out of a sample set of 300 which translated to a response rate of 71%.

A set of twenty research questions was designed around the three central job attitude measures. Statistical treatment of the data centered on the treatment of each of those measures as dependent variables. Statistical analysis involved the use of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Nie, Hall, et al., 1970), and primarily analyzed the research questions via One-way Analysis of Variance, paired and independent t-tests, and Pearson Product Moment Correlations.

The results of this study indicated a high degree of intent to remain, organizational commitment, and expressed job satisfaction across all three sub-populations surveyed.

In spite of the high overall level of intent to remain, organizational commitment, and overall satisfaction for these faculty members, the results clearly indicated significantly lower levels of organizational commitment and expressed satisfaction for faculty at public universities as compared to the other two subpopulations examined in the study. Organizational commitment scores were also significantly lower for male faculty members as opposed to their female counterparts. Specific factors which were linked to "low" intent to remain scores included the intrinsic factors: lack of recognition, lack of opportunity for advancement, and lack of opportunity for growth on the job.

The data collected from the Job Factor Questionnaire did not support Herzberg's "dual-factor" theory. Although motivators as a group related more to positive feelings about the job for faculty than did hygiene factors, motivators also related more to negative feelings about the job. This indicated the probable existence of a dual-continuum as an explanation for the relationship of various intrinsic and extrinsic factors to faculty attitudes (satisfaction/ dissatisfaction) about the job.

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